Two FDNY emergency medical technicians allegedly ignored pleas for help

Receive the latest local updates in your inbox

A toddler was struck and killed in her family's driveway when her father backed his car out of the garage.

Updated at 12:57 PM EDT on Monday, Dec 21, 2009

Mayor Bloomberg blasted two FDNY emergency medical technicians who reportedly left a pregnant woman to die in Brooklyn while they finished their coffee break.

The city is investigating a New York Poststory that said the EMTs were buying bagels at the Au Bon Pain at Metrotech Center on Dec. 9 and refused to help at all when 25-year-old Eutisha Revee Rennix struggled to breathe, collapsed and later died. Bloomberg just shook his head in disgust yesterday when asked about it and said if the story is true then the EMTs should be ashamed.

"It was unconscionable, [an] outrage, pick some adjectives and stick it in," said the Mayor at a briefing on the snow storm yesterday . "The Fire Department, including EMS, is responsible for life-saving, and their first responsibility is to do that … but -- even if they weren't part of the Fire Department sworn to protect all of us -- just normal human beings, drop your coffee and go help somebody if they're dying. C'mon."

The Post said Rennix, who worked at the bakery, was struggling to breathe. Her bakery coworkers begged the EMTs -- who worked as dispatchers at the FDNY headquarters at Metrotech -- to help the stricken woman. The EMTs, according to eyewitnesses quoted in the Post, offered heartless advice: "Call 911. The workers ended up calling 911 and the EMTs walked out with their breakfast before helped arrived.

Rennix, the mother of a three-year-old son, was rushed to the hospital where she died. Doctors delivered her baby girl, who also died a few hours later.

The Fire Department has declined to comment on the incident, except to say that it was investigating. Even the paramedic's union distanced themselves from the rogue EMTs.

"FDNY EMTs & Paramedics -- all 3,000 of them -- are dedicated to saving lives across the city," said Robert Ungar, a spokesperson

for the Uniformed EMTs & Paramedics' Local 2507. "They have a long standing history of off duty rescues and assistance...in and out of uniform. Our people stop and assist at accident scenes, heart attacks and have even rescued people from subway tracks while off duty. We NEVER condone activity by our members that could harm the public. If these members are found to have violated Department protocals, the FDNY has a process to deal with that."